Chapter 13: Corel And The Gold Saucer

Worried that there still might be Shinra around, they left Costa Del Sol early the next morning, just before the sun rose. Cloud, Aerith, and Tifa were all sporting their new clothes. Nanaki, of course, wore no clothes. Barret had apparently taken his same old clothes down to the beach, because they nearly looked clean once he had them back on. Cloud wondered what he wore as he was washing them and why, if he had spare clothes, he never actually put them on for their traveling.

As they left the resort town behind them, Cloud couldn't help but look back occasionally. As hard as he'd tried to stay focused on the task before them, spending time with his friends on the beach and in the shops had been a welcome respite from the madness that had become his life.

There's that word again, he thought. Friends. Tifa is one thing, but when did I start thinking of the rest of these people as my friends?

There were few farms in the area, as the western continent was known more for strange shifts in topography compared to the flat green plains on the eastern continent. Even within sight they could see several different kinds of land: the beach of Costa Del Sol, the rough flatter soil they walked now, the mountain range to the south, and craggy rocks along the shore to the east. It was a strange land. And as they continued, the air dried out and the plants melted away, turning the track in front of them more into a kind of rocky desert than anything else.

They made the mountain range just before midday and followed several withering trail signs to a pass that would lead across to the other side. It wasn't so much a path as a utility trail cleared alongside ancient looking railroad tracks. More steep than Cloud would have thought possible, they followed the tracks up one of the peaks, huffing and puffing and occasionally resting on enormous boulders. There was the occasional bout with a strange creature or two, but they handled those challenges easily and they did little damage to the group other than to force to them to rest a bit more than they perhaps otherwise would.

"It seems stupid that we're walking along these tracks," Barret wheezed as they went along. "Rather than riding on them in a train. How come we have to walk everywhere?"

"Shinra owns all mass transportation," Cloud answered as he hopped lightly from one boulder to the next, as they utility trail grew thin. "They shut everything down a few years back. They figured that if nobody had any way to get around en masse besides them, it would help tamp out any resistance operations by limiting supply lines."

"Still," Tifa said. "You'd think the Shinra at least would still be using trains to transport mako."

"They probably still do sometimes," Cloud shrugged. "But the trains all run on coal. Since Shinra started distributing mako throughout the world, most coal mining communities quit mining and went to work for them. Hardly anyone uses coal anymore."

He saw Barret flinch as he explained, a dark look crossing his face and his shoulders slumping down. He was going to ask him what was wrong when they came upon another traveler leaning against a rock, a large pack next to him. He invited them to sit and share lunch with him, after asking for a bit of gil of course, and they took him up on the offer. They chatted a bit as they ate thoroughly salted jerky and herbs, learning that the man was a traveling merchant for rare antiquities. He'd just returned from the long, vertical island that was home to Wutai, and he showed the group odd weapons like oversized throwing stars and a sort of razor-edged boomerang.

"Pretty interesting," Cloud mumbled, turning the weapon over in his hands. "Care to part with it?"

"For a price," the merchant smirked kindly. "But for you guys, I'll cut you a deal on it. How about two hundred gil?"

Cloud dug in his pocket and handed over the money. "Any particular reason your giving us a break?"

"Sure," the merchant said. "You guys were nice enough to sit down and talk to me. It gets lonely out here, you know. And you could have been as rude to me as that last guy, but you weren't."

"Last guy?"

"Some angry looking guy in black with long white hair," the merchant nodded. "I wasn't even trying to sell him anything. Just wanted to warn him that it's dangerous up ahead, but the guy brushed right past me."

"White hair?" Aerith said quickly.

"Sephiroth," Cloud said darkly.

The merchant laughed. "Young fella, I can assure you it was not Sephiroth. He died a long, long time ago."

"Right," Cloud said, manufacturing a smile. "How silly of me."

They talked some more, but a cloudy mood had fallen over them and the conversation became more forced as they trudged through their own thoughts. But the merchant continued to be helpful, warning them that at the top of the peak they would have to cross a raised set of train tracks, across the bridge to another mountain peak, where a Shinra reactor sat. Beyond that they would take another utility path back down the mountain toward flat land, where Corel was located.

As they got back underway, Cloud noticed that Barret became more and more moody, talking less and often just grunting one word answers when he did. But they were far too consumed with the travel for Cloud to make a point to question him. They crossed the raised tracks, Nanaki inching along slowly for fear of the several hundred foot drop. Because of the delay, they didn't reach the Shinra reactor on the other side until the early evening. The reactor appeared to be of the Nibelheim variety: small and self-sustaining. They saw no one working outside it, though they gave it as wide a berth as possible just to be safe.

"You don't want to go inside and dismantle the thing?" Cloud asked, peering sideways at Barret.

"We got more important work to do now," Barret grumbled.

They started along the path down the mountain. Barret's mood worsened as they went until he fell completely silent, a permanent scowl etched on his face. By the time they reached an abandoned train station halfway down the mountain, Cloud had taken to completely ignoring him.

"It's not entirely abandoned," Aerith said. "Look."

Cloud saw she was right. Alongside the small building, snoozing against its walls near a bulldozer, was a disheveled and dirty man in a white undershirt, cargo pants, and a hardhat. A half empty jug rested next to him, the dark liquid within looking positively unhealthy. They shook him awake and he sputtered in surprise.

"Eh?" he bumbled, struggling to stand up. "Hey, what are you people doing here?"

"We're passing through," Tifa said. "Are you alright?"

"Alright?" the man scoffed. "Nobody anywhere near Corel is alright, except for the ones running the tram up to the Gold Saucer. This whole town has gone to pot." The man hiccupped drunkenly. "Used to be a famous coal town, they say. Used to be more work here than anywhere else in the world, they say. Came here years ago with my bulldozer to make a living. Ha!"

Cloud looked the man up and down, trying to decide exactly how drunk he was. "You don't live in town?"

"What town?" the man laughed. "It's just a bunch of refugees in tents down there. It isn't even the real Corel. That place turned into a desert prison a long time ago. Only the dregs of the Gold Saucer live there now. They set this place up a few years back for the displaced miners and called it North Corel. What a joke. There's no coal here, only the garbage they sell to tourists heading up to that damned oversized casino in the hills."

Cloud glanced at Barret, who was back to looking at his feet, then back at the woozy man. "It can't be that bad."

"You don't think so?" the man slurred. "You said you're passing through, so I guess you'll see for yourself, won't you." He plopped back down on the ground, took a swig from his jug, and leaned back against the station house. "Just don't say I didn't warn you."

(BREAK)

An hour or so later, as the sun was beginning to set, Cloud decided that he owed the drunken man an apology. Even the sign announcing their arrival in North Corel reeked of destitution, the faded paint and cracked wooden post dislodged and dreary. But that didn't compare to the "town" of North Corel itself.

A refugee camp seemed an apropos description. The entire settlement appeared to consist of nothing more than a hodgepodge of lean-tos and haphazard tent structures that had been placed at random along a single twisting dirt path. There couldn't have been more than twenty or thirty such structures and outside of nearly all of them were overturned crates and equipment, upon which forlorn citizens covered in grime and dust had displayed the most trivial of junk and trinkets for sale. Even seeing this from afar as they approached down the mountainside, Cloud decided that the people of the Midgar slums were downright upbeat compared with the citizens of North Corel.

Walking into the settlement, Cloud noticed that Barret hung back at the tail end of the group. He was about to ask him why when he got his answer.

A group of the dirty people of North Corel blocked the path, arms crossed and glaring. One of them, a man that was probably in his early forties, stepped forward and pointed a single grimy finger at them. "Never thought we'd see your face again," he barked cruelly. "They kick you out of another town? Wouldn't surprise any of us. You destroy everything you touch."

Cloud followed the man's finger to find that he was pointing directly at Barret, whose shoulders had slumped even further.

"You've got quite the stones coming back here," the man continued. "Well? What do you think of our town? Are you proud of it? You created this, after all. No? Don't you have anything to say?"

Barret took a deep breath. "I'm sorry."

"Oh, you hear that everyone?" the man mocked, turning to others behind him. "Barret's sorry. Doesn't that make us all feel better?"

"Look…" Barret began.

"Shut up," the man snapped. "No one wants to hear your explanations. You aren't worth our time. Oh, and that's quite an arm you've got there, you freak."

The man signaled to the others and they turned around, filtering back to their tents or else sliding back behind where they sold their trash.

"Barret?" Cloud said slowly.

"They're right," he said softly, still looking down at his feet. "It's my fault Corel was destroyed."

"I thought it went under because there was less need for coal," Aerith said.

"It was my fault!" Barret roared.

And he suddenly pushed past them, shouldering Cloud out of the way and jogging hurriedly down the path as onlookers lobbed insults at him. There was a single large building in the distance where a gondola sat. Barret disappeared behind the building as the group watched on.

"What in the world was that about?" Cloud asked, looking to Tifa.

"I'm not sure," she shook her head. "Barret was never all that talkative when it came to his past."

Cloud walked over to one of the merchants. "Where does that tram go?"

The merchant glared back at him. "Up to the Gold Saucer. That's where everyone that comes through here goes. Not us poor folks, though. Thanks to your friend, we can't even afford the entrance fee."

"What did he do to you people?" Cloud asked.

"He never told you?" the merchant glared. "I'm not surprised. He was always a coward. Do yourself a favor and ditch him. Or else you'll end up the same as the rest of us: with nothing."

"Right," Cloud sighed. "Look, has there been anyone unusual coming through your town lately?"

"Mostly just the normal rich folks," the merchant grumbled. "But earlier a guy in a black cloak with long white hair and a hell of a sword walked through. He was ruder than usual, which is why I remember him. That and that tattoo on his arm. Who would get the number one as a tattoo?"

"Thanks," Cloud said.

He led the others towards the gondola station. It was by far the nicest looking structure in North Corel, with a pretty girl working the counter. Cloud allowed his eyes to follow up the length of the ropeway, which disappeared out of sight into the cloud cover of another mountain peak. He'd never been to the Gold Saucer, but everyone had heard of it. It was an enormous playground for adults, with everything from casinos and chocobo racing to theme restaurants and theatre shows. Cloud had even heard that there was a wedding chapel up there where vacationing couples could throw caution to the wind and get hitched in a fit of drunken euphoria.

Barret was turned away from the group on the platform. He looked over at them briefly as they approached, then turned away again.

"Barret," Aerith said. She walked forward and put a hand on his back. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Tell us what happened," Cloud said.

Barret sighed and turned. "My hometown used to be around here."

"Used to be?" Nanaki mewed.

"It was a coal mining town just south of here," Barret nodded. "I heard most everybody left and founded this place, North Corel. Those that stayed worked for the Gold Saucer, which turned the town into its own private prison."

"But how could those people say those terrible things?" Aerith asked.

"They're right to say them," Barret shook his head. "Corel used to be a bustling place. Not like a big city, mind you, but a good hardworking small town. Then Shinra decided to build that damned reactor at the top of Mount Corel. They needed to get the town's approval and our help building it, so they sent their people in."

"Who'd you guys get?" Cloud asked.

"Scarlet," Barret answered.

Cloud frowned. "The woman in charge of weapons development?"

"Yeah, well, I guess back then she was just an errand runner. She showed up with a couple of Shinra soldiers, took those of us on the town council aside, and made the company's pitch. She promised us easy work in the Shinra reactor, steady income, and all kinds of benefits. Nearly all of us fell for it. Only my best friend, Dyne, opposed the new reactor being built when we held a vote in the council building."

He went on, telling them how Dyne had insisted that coal mining was the town's heritage and must be protected, and how Barret led the way in convincing everyone to accept Shinra's proposal. After scant debate, they took their vote.

"That's how the Corel reactor was built," Barret said. "I was so sure it would bring us all an easier life."

"Until Shinra broke their promise," Tifa whispered.

Barret nodded. "They came when a bunch of us men were out of town for a few days. Those were the early days of the Shinra reactors, when people still fought them from time to time. There had been an explosion at the reactor and the company was blaming a rebel faction within the town for it. Shinra troops razed Corel, nearly burning it completely to the ground. All those townspeople, all of my relatives, most of them died."

"That's terrible!" Tifa said, tears threatening her eyes.

"Even so," Barret mumbled. "I'm the one that's to blame. If I hadn't gone along with the plans to build the reactor, if I hadn't convinced the rest of the town council to give in to Shinra, none of it would have happened."

"You can't blame yourself for it, though," Tifa said pleadingly. "And neither can those people back there. Almost everyone was fooled by the promises Shinra made back then."

"That's no excuse," Barret shook his head. "What happened is my responsibility. It isn't just the death of Corel on my hands. I lost my wife, I lost my family." He took a deep breath. "I lost everything."

Aerith patted him on the back again. "There was nothing you could do."

"I could have listened to Dyne," Barret growled. "We had been so close, ever since we were kids. I could have trusted his judgment."

The girl at the gondola station counter leaned out towards them. "Excuse me, but if you folks want to go up to the Gold Saucer, the gondola will be leaving in just a moment. It's a free ride up, but you'll have to pay to enter once you get up there."

"Thanks," Cloud called back to her. He turned back to the others. "Let's get moving. Sephiroth might still be up there."

They boarded the gondola in single file. Cloud waited for Barret, meaning to say something reassuring to him before he climbed aboard. But the big black man pushed past him before he could say anything and sat grumpily apart from the others.

With a sigh, Cloud followed him in and the gondola lurched upward toward the Gold Saucer.

(BREAK)

Rising through the air in the gondola was exciting enough, what with peering down through the windows and watching as the wretched landscape of North Corel left them as they escaped up into the mountains. They went higher and higher, those they could still see on the ground eventually becoming dots flitting about the earth.

But it wasn't until they breached the clouds that the group issued a nearly collective gasp at what they saw, all save Barret, who sat grumpily in his seat and glared at no one in particular.

Cloud's first thought was to wonder how they hadn't seen the Gold Saucer when they had descended Mount Corel. There was a fair amount of distance between the Shinra reactor and this particular mountain, as the gondola ropes led them far to one side of Mount Corel. Still, the sheer size and amount of light the resort produced was incredible. There were lighted signs everywhere, all of them advertising different Gold Saucer attractions. In the forefront was a long winding track encased in glass tubing, where chocobos could be seen racing along with jockeys on their backs over open air. Impressively large was the resorts theme hotel, which carefully crafted the scene of a haunted house. There was a section built up against the mountainside that had a large glass window for an entire wall, through which they could see an enormous arcade filled with midway games and an arcade. Another section was labeled The Showroom, claiming to be the largest collection of rare occult and antiquated objects in the world. As they passed overhead all this, they then saw another section for a theatre, which advertised a full list of varied plays. And around it all, flitting along and suspended from an overhead track, was something called The Lover's Ride, where couples could tour the outside of the park and see the sights, or simply use the time to steal kisses with each other away from the eyes of the other visitors.

As the gondola docked on a welcome platform, which was built into the structure of the Gold Saucer so as to block the harsh mountain wind, the amount of color and light only increased. A huge sign welcomed them to the resort, while more advertisements for attractions flashed around them. Hopping around outside the entrance was a comically dressed man in a chocobo costume, who chirped more welcomes at them as they exited the gondola. A women working a ticket counter at the entrance informed them that it would cost three thousand gil as a group to get in. Barret scoffed at the price, but they pooled their money together and found that they had enough, with a bit left over.

Still, we have to come up with some money, Cloud thought. We've got less than a thousand gil left. It might be worth trying to win a little bit of cash at the chocobo races if we don't find Sephiroth here.

The woman also informed them that, once inside, they would be able to travel to all of the areas of the Gold Saucer through a series of sophisticated multi-directional elevators. Each area would have a way to get to all the other areas. Walking through the entrance, Cloud saw what she meant. There was a clearly marked portal to each of the attractions before them, along with a map of the entire Gold Saucer.

"This place is amazing," Tifa said as they stood before the portals, looking up at the different labels for them.

"Yeah!" Aerith said happily. She glanced at Barret, who was still shuffling about moodily. "Let's take a moment and have some fun!"l

Barret glared at her.

Aerith walked over and pushed him playfully. "I know we've got important things to do, but it'd help all of us if we could just cheer up a bit. Don't you think?"

"I'm not in a cheery mood," Barret growled at her. "So just leave me alone."

"Aw, c'mon," Aerith smirked at him. "Everyone wants to play for a bit. Why don't you take off your crabby pants and join us?"

Damn, Cloud thought. This isn't going to turn out well.

And he was right.

"So go play then!" Barret erupted, shouldering past her rather roughly. "Go have fun. Waste time messing around! Never mind that we're after Sephiroth. Never mind that we're trying to save the entire planet. Let's just go screw around."

Then he jabbed the elevator button for the arcade, walked through the doors when they opened, and disappeared when they'd closed.

Aerith turned to the rest of them and smiled sheepishly. "I think he's mad."

Cloud sighed. "He has a point, you know. We aren't here to have fun."

"I agree," Nanaki mewed. "This is a strange place. I don't like it."

"I'm surprised they even let you in here," Cloud said. "Although I'm sure plenty of rich folks demand to cart their pets around with them."

Nanaki shot him a look, but didn't say anything else.

"Barret will be fine," Tifa said decidedly. "And Aerith has a point too. Of course we're here on business, but there's nothing wrong with taking a quick moment to remind ourselves what we're fighting for. I say we take a peek around this place."

"Where did you want to go?" Aerith asked her, looking happy.

"The chocobo races," Tifa answered immediately. "We need more money. Besides, I always had a knack for gambling."

"Take Nanaki with you," Cloud said. "I'm going to go find Barret. I don't want his temper getting all of us into trouble." He looked to Aerith. "What about you?"

"I'll come with you," Aerith said. "It might help if I apologized to Barret."

They went their separate ways. Tifa shot him an odd look as she and Nanaki disappeared into the elevator marked Chocobo Racing. A quick trip in their own elevator deposited Cloud and Aerith in the lobby of the arcade.

The noise was incredible. There were games all around them, each issuing their own dings and dongs as patrons played. A quick look through the arcade revealed that Barret was no longer there. Cloud was about to suggest they look elsewhere when he was approached by something strange.

It looked fake, but moved well enough. Colored pure white, it was nearly circular in form, with pudgy legs and arms and a comically large set of eyes and ears. As it approached them, Cloud decided it looked like an oversized powder puff. It had a small slit for a mouth, which nearly drove home the impression that it was some kind of robotic machine as well as the muffled, mechanical voice that spoke to them.

"Hello, you two!" it said in a falsely friendly way. "You both look down. I'm Cait Sith, a fortune telling machine designed to brighten your day."

Cloud looked down at the thing, which only came up to his chest. "You tell fortunes?"

Gears whirred and it pivoted to look back up at him. "That is my primary function. Sometimes I can also find missing things and people."

Feeling silly, Cloud nodded. "Okay, then tell me where a man named Sephiroth is."

The machine's glowing eyes winked several times and its body went rigid as the sound of whirring gears increased. From its slit of a mouth, a small strip of paper printed out.

Cloud took it and read it aloud. "You will have ordinary luck and an active fortune. Give into the good will of others and something big will happen by summer." He dropped the paper to the floor. "What does that have to do with Sephiroth?"

"I'm sorry," the machine said. "Please let me try again."

It went through the same process and Cloud again took the slip of paper and read it aloud.

"Be careful of forgetfulness. Your lucky color is blue." He again dropped the paper. "Never mind. Let's just go."

"Wait!" the machine said earnestly. "Give me one last chance."

The eyes blinked and the gears whirred and Cloud was left with another slip of paper. He scanned it.

"What is this?" he asked, looking at the machine. "Is this for real?"

"What does it say?" Aerith asked, pressing up against him, trying to read the slip in his hands.

"That which you pursue will be yours," Cloud read aloud. "But you will lose something dear to you as well."

"Wow," the machine said mechanically. "This is the first time I've ever got something like this. I don't know if it's good or bad. But I guess I'll just have to find out!"

"What are you talking about?" Aerith asked.

"Normally I don't get a chance to verify my predictions since they're so vague," Cait Sith responded. It edged closer to them. "But if this one comes true and I can get a recording of it with my mechanical body, my company can use that as an advertisement! That means I have to come with you!"

"Cloud?" Aerith asked, looking at him inquiringly.

"You can't come with," Cloud said firmly.

"You can't stop me," Cait Sith said in his machine voice. "I'm tagging along with you no matter what."

And the machine did just that. Cloud thought they could shake him at first, hustling into the elevator to the chocobo races, but the thing followed them closely. So close, in fact, that it prevented the elevator doors from shutting before they could get away. As the elevator lurched and got them underway, Aerith gave him a bemused smile and Cloud rolled his eyes as the machine chattered away about past fortunes it had told and its plans to record them when his latest came true.

Walking into the chocobo racing casino, Cloud decided that it was every bit as loud as the arcade had been. Here, however, instead of the ringing and dinging of games, the air was filled with excited men and women of all kinds urging their chocobos on as they raced around the track, or else wailing in lament as they tore up losing tickets. There were large video screens everywhere, each of them showing the race in progress or slow motion replays of previous finishes. A couple of jockeys lounged in one corner by a long and fully stocked bar, while what must have been several hundred patrons lined up at betting machines, funneling in money and taking away racing tickets.

They saw Tifa and Nanaki to one side. Tifa was staring up at one of the screens with her fingers crossed, while Nanaki had curled up at her feet, looking bored.

"Hey," Cloud said as they approached. "Have you seen Barret?"

"No," Tifa said as she turned briefly from the screen. "But I have won us a decent amount of money. What is that thing?"

Cloud followed her eyes to Cait Sith, standing quietly behind them. "Says his name is Cait Sith. Apparently he's a fortune telling machine."

"Uh huh," Tifa said, looking confused. "And why is it following you around?"

"Because," Cloud sighed heavily. "He predicted my future for me and now he thinks he's coming with us to find out if it comes true."

Tifa laughed. Nanaki leaned to sniff Cait Sith's pudgy mechanical feet and then swiped at him with one clawed paw, causing him to scurry back.

"Anyway," Tifa said. "Betting the chocobos is really easy. All you have to do is pick which two will finish in first and second place. If you're right, you double your money."

"How much are you up?"

"A couple thousand," Tifa grinned. "If this keeps up, we should be okay on cash for a while."

"And no sign of Sephiroth?"

"Sorry," she mumbled, turning back to the monitor to watch the race in progress.

They left to go back to the elevators, Cait Sith traveling closely in their wake. Those chose the elevator marked Rides and found themselves in a lobby where people were queued up for a variety of carnival rides, including the The Lover's Ride.

A slick looking man in a garish suit with bright blonde hair opened his arms as they walked off the elevator.

"You two look like a happy couple!" he nearly shouted. "How about taking a trip on the Lover's Ride?"

Aerith looked at him and smiled, but Cloud shook his head. "No thanks."

"What's the matter, boy? Aren't you here to have fun?"

Cloud glared at him. "My name's Cloud. Don't call me boy."

The man grinned at him. "And my name's Dio. I own the Gold Saucer and I like to make sure the younger crowd like you folks have themselves a good time."

"We're fine," Cloud said.

"Have you stopped by our showroom yet?"

"No."

"You really should!" Dio exclaimed. "We've got tons of rare stuff on display. Have you ever heard of black materia?"

Cloud, who had been trying to get around Dio to look for Barret, stopped and stared. "Black materia?"

"Yeah," Dio nodded. "Been lots of interest in it lately. In fact, I just had another boy about your age come by asking about it. I thought maybe you'd be interested in it too."

Cloud froze. "The other guy, did he have long white hair?"

"He did!" Dio said happily. "And for some reason he had the number one tattooed on his arm. Strange young boy, he was. Do you know him?"

"Did he happen to say where he was going?" Cloud asked quickly.

"No, no," Dio laughed. "Just wanted to know about the black materia I have on display. You really should go see it yourselves."

Cloud was about to question him further, but Dio cut him off and put his finger to one ear. Looking closely, Cloud could see a small accordion cord coming from behind his ear, where he clearly had a radio device inserted. Dio was doing his best to be quiet about it, but Cloud overheard him nervously telling whoever was on the other end to send all kinds of security personnel to the showroom.

Cloud turned to Aerith. "Something's going on in the showroom," he whispered.

"You think it has something to do with Sephiroth?" she whispered back.

"I'm not sure. But we should probably check it out."

They left Dio still talking hurriedly into his radio device and traveled to the showroom, Cait Sith still forcing his company on them.

As soon as they stepped off the elevator, Cloud knew something was wrong. Everywhere they'd gone in the Gold Saucer, the one common theme had been noise. But as the elevator doors opened they heard nothing. Stepping out, they saw how bad it was.

A couple of Gold Saucer personnel were slumped in one corner of the showroom lobby. Their uniforms were spattered with blood coming from gun wounds in their chests. The young girl who had been behind the showroom ticket counter was dead as well, a single gunshot wound through her forehead where she slumped across the counter. Throughout the lobby were several other bodies, all dead, all of them wearing dark suits with Gold Saucer engraved on the breast collar.

"What happened here?" Aerith gasped, looking around horrified. "Was it Sephiroth?"

Cloud went from body to body, examining all of them quickly. He came upon one of them that groaned as he squatted next to it, still alive.

"Hey," he said quietly. "What happened here?"

"A man," the worker coughed. Blood dribbled down his chin as the light began to leave his eyes. "A man…with a gun for an arm…"

And he died with a final gasp.

"No," Aerith said quickly. "No, it couldn't be him, could it?"

And then they heard several sets of heavy footsteps behind them and they turned. Walking into the lobby from several of the elevators were some twenty armed guards followed by Dio. He came to the front of the group and sneered at them. "You three stay quiet and don't move," he barked. "You've been caught red handed."

Cloud put his arms up. "This wasn't us!"

"Enough!" Dio roared angrily. "I tell you about the black materia and then you and your friends kill my people to get it? Your crimes will not go unpunished, I assure you."

"Wait," Cloud said hurriedly. "Would you just let me explain?"

"No," Dio snapped. "We're already rounding up the rest of your criminal friends that you came in with. You're going to pay for what you've done, boy. You're going to my little prison in the desert. I've already got transportation on the way. It's off to Corel Prison with you."

Cloud continued to protest, as did Aerith, but the guards didn't listen. They took all three of them into custody, comically trying to place handcuffs on Cait Sith's stubby little arms, and then took them back down the gondola to North Corel. There they waited several hours in isolation before being loaded into the back of a shabby truck, where no windows allowed them to see out. He was told that the others had already been caught and sent to Corel Prison. The guards had also told him that nobody ever made it out of Corel Prison.

Cait Sith was quiet as they went. Aerith kept trying to catch his eye, looking worried, but he ignored her.

It's over, he thought. I've failed again.